


Drawing Unicorns And Train Wrecks

by Nad98



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Family Bonding, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Happy Ending, Kid Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Kid Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:42:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25996948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nad98/pseuds/Nad98
Summary: When Janus came out of his room, the Mindscape was awfully quiet. It had been in the for the last two days and by now he was fairly certain that that had been enough cool down time for all sides. Something needed to be done.That might not have been Janus’s strongest suit but he was willing to do what was necessary. And so he was on his way into the kitchen where he was certain to find Patton and talk with him about a possiblebondingactivity.Reqested by varthandi on Tumblr.
Relationships: Anxiety & Creativity & Dark Creativity & Deceit & Logic & Morality (Sanders Sides)
Comments: 24
Kudos: 66





	1. Dress Up

**Author's Note:**

  * For [varthandi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/varthandi/gifts).



When Janus came out of his room, the Mindscape was awfully quiet. It had been for the last two days and by now he was fairly certain that that had been enough cool down time for all sides. Something needed to be done.

That might not have been Janus’s strongest suit but he was willing to do what was necessary. And so he was on his way into the kitchen where he was certain to find Patton and talk with him about a possible _bonding_ activity.

* * *

Roman felt anything but glittery. He felt stupid and, quite honestly, betrayed. Betrayed by Patton and maybe to some extend by Thomas. But Patton was the one who hurt more. He had tried to understand him. To take him seriously. To act like Patton always had preached. Or what Roman had thought Patton always preached. Maybe it was more implied and Roman just had misread what he meant and it all was his fault- 

Roman punched the wall. In the past two days every single thought he had, ended in that conclusion. It was his fault. All of it. And it exhausted Roman. It exhausted him to pity himself this much. He didn’t want to pity himself anymore. He wanted to stand tall, to move on and to help the others move forward too.

But instead he had been unable to leave his room. He had locked himself up and Patton had stopped knocking on his door. Virgil had tried three times. Logan once. That had been expected since Roman had let him down too…

Click. Roman listened up. Click. Clack. Living room? Click. Click. Click. Entrance hallway? Clack. Click. Click. And the door was slightly pushed open.

Somebody had just broken into his room.

Roman summoned his sword in reflex, thinking about what he would shout towards his intruder, how deeply they had sunken to overstep his boundaries like that. But all that anger and frustration and hurt which swelled in his chest froze in the moment when the door opened a little more and he saw nobody behind it.

Until he cast his look a little down and found a small boy in huge black t-shirt with an alien face on it, a green cape and no trousers standing there in front of him. He was maybe five years old and snot was hanging down from his nose and his eyes were puffy and red.

At once, Roman let his sword drop and he tried to make himself look smaller, less threatening, seeing this poor excuse of his brother looking up at him in such dismay.

Remus had regressed. It was not a first and he had come to Roman before in such a state but this one seemed to be more serious. Remus began to sob. Yes, this was really bad.

Swiftly, Roman closed the door and kneeled down before his now littler brother, carefully assessing what the smartest next move would be. Little Remus usually liked it when he could chew on something and was held. And so, before anything else, Roman conjured a plush bunny and handed it to the little Duke, who took it without question and started to chew on its ears. It seemed to calm him a little and Roman felt a little tension drop from his shoulders.

“Want a hug, buddy?” Roman then asked and carefully held his arms out in case Remus wanted to hug him.

With no word said, Remus catapulted himself in Roman’s arms and the Prince let the child nuzzle against his chest. Carefully he stroked Remus’s little, curly head, mindful of the black cardboard crown and tried to figure out what to do next.

He could have dealt with this every other day. Well, not the last two days but probably any other ones. He could not do this on his own. Didn’t know how to help Remus on his own. But who had he to turn to at this point? Patton and Janus were certainly angry with him, Logan hurt by being not listened to once more despite compromising so much and Virgil probably was disappointed in him for failing to stop Janus.

No, he had nowhere to go and he needed to help Remus now.

No matter if he could do it our not, he had to.

And so, Roman squeezed Remus a little before he pulled gingerly away and tried to catch his look. Bravely he shot Remus a smile, when he finally returned to look, stroked over his tiny upper arm to soothe him a little.

“Do want to tell me what’s wrong?” Roman tried softly.

Remus opened his mouth. Then he closed it and pressed the plush bunny against his chest and started chewing harder on the ears of it. He wanted to explain it but apparently, his ordinarily so chatty brother had gone non-verbal. Which was exceptionally bad and Roman had to admit to himself that he really wasn’t able to do this.

He had to ask for help. He would do it for Remus.

“Okay, buddy, I know you came here because you need help and want me to help you. And I wanna do that. I am just not in the best mental state to manage this on my own and I will have to get you to somebody else so we can figure out together what we can do to make you feel better. Do you understand that?”

Remus looked at first as if he wanted to throw a tantrum but then his eyes grew watery and he began to nod. It wasn’t ideal but he still understood that Roman could only do so much.

Roman nodded and then conjured four holographic symbols in front of Remus; a yellow snake, a frog with a cardigan and round glasses, an owl with a tie and square glasses and a black cat with purple eyes. Remus got to choose, the little Duke realized and frowned thinking about who he wanted to see the most besides Roman. After some deliberation, much more than the grown-up Remus would have done anyway, he pointed to the cat and Roman bowed his head, picked Remus up and sunk them both into Virgil’s room as requested.

They were met with a surprised yelp and Remus immediately started to bury his head in the crane of Roman’s neck. Roman meanwhile turned to Virgil and saw the anxious side stare at him in a mixture of anger and confusion.

“I can explain!” Roman ushered and stroked with one hand over Remus’s back. “I know you don’t want to see me and that I am not supposed to just get into your room and that you have never done that to me but Remus picked the lock at my door and came in and you see he’s regressed and in a lot of distress and usually I could deal with this myself but right now I can’t and you’re the person he agreed to let him help so that’s why I’m here and I am sorry.”

Virgil had caught about half of it, because the level of stress and anxiety from Remus but especially Roman hit him completely off-guard. Mouth agape and eyes wide he stared from Roman’s stressed face to the little back of the child he believed to be Remus who clung to his brother like a little koala to its mother. Carefully, he got closer to the two and suddenly his head registered what Roman had said. Everything what Roman had said.

“Wait. What? Why would you apologize? And what’s Remus in distress about? And did you just imply that he did that before?” Virgil asked and noticed how dark circles around Roman’s eyes appeared and sensed the panic rising in him.

“He always does when something really upsetting happens and I am his usual go to, I suppose and-”

“Ro-” Virgil uses my nickname. My nickname \- “I’ll help you and Remus but we need to get you out of my room. You’re only going to get worse.”

Virgil paused for a second. Roman seemed to follow his words closely. Stuck even to them as if they were a lifeline. Oh boy. This was serious. Who could they go to?

Patton? No, not with the twins in this state.

Janus? No, Virgil disliked him and he had been harsh to Roman.

Logan it was then.

“Let’s go to the pocket protector. Would that be okay? Roman? Remus?”

Virgil watched Roman nod but waited in vain for Remus to react. The little child was nervous. Uncertain. Virgil needed his consent as well, otherwise they could not hope for it to actually get better.

Careful Virgil made another step closer to the twins and carefully touched the little Duke on the shoulder. He didn’t flinch but grew stiff and Virgil thought about pulling back, retreating before he was able to push through and say: “We’re not on the best terms but I don’t want you to suffer, Ree. You don’t deserve that. And Logan is really good when it comes to panic stuff; He’s always helped me when I needed it.”

A tiny bit of tension left Remus’s body and Virgil saw how the boy faintly nodded into his brother’s chest. That had to be enough for the moment and Virgil exchange a look with Roman and they both sunk out into Logan’s room.

“I am preoccupied Pa-” was the immediate reaction from Logan who was sitting at his desk and just turned away from his laptop to stare at the trio before him.

Well, it took him a second until he realized it was a trio and not only Virgil and Roman, who both looked rather stressed. No, there was also a little child clinging to Roman’s chest and Logan blatantly stared at the little person.

“Please tell me that this is not one of us,” Logan begged the two with an enormously tired look.

Roman was about to explain but Virgil held his hand up as a sign that he would take over, since for once Virgil believed to be the calmer and more reasonable between the two. And so, Virgil stepped forward and confessed to Logan: “Hate to disappoint, L, but that’s Remus. And we kinda need your help to figure this out.”

Mechanically, Logan stood up stepped towards the trio eyes fully fixated on Remus. He had not known that it was possible for a side to regress in age. Now that he thought about it, it made sense, they were imaginary after all and anything Thomas was able to think about could happen to them, so it followed at least something resembling reason.

“Do we know why this happened? What has Remus told you?” Logan finally asked and lifted his focus up to Roman, who immediately pressed the little boy closer to his chest.

Roman shook his head and said: “I know he’s in distress; this always happens when he’s in distress but he couldn’t explain why because he’s non-verbal right now and I – I really can’t deal with it on my own right now. I - I need your help to figure it out. Please.”

Before Logan could say anything further, a tiny sob silenced all three immediately. Big eyed Virgil and Logan stared at the little boy in Roman’s arms. This whine sounded nothing like the usually so loud and confident Duke. Nothing eccentric or eye-catching. Just the lost weeping of a little boy and in a way that was far more terrifying.

Roman didn’t stare though. He slowly lowered himself and kneeled down to the floor, while pressing a soft kiss on the top of Remus’s forehead. And as Roman came closer to the floor Remus pulled his little legs away from Roman’s sides and carefully let his feet be lowered to the ground. And so, Remus now stood, arms still pressed around Roman’s neck, tears streaming down his cheeks afraid of being shouted at for interrupting. Or worse. Of being ignored because he was not important. Just a nuisance.

“It’s okay buddy. It’s okay.”

Remus nodded and slowly released Roman from his tight hug and let his brother have a proper look at him. It was so strange seeing Roman’s face and it not looking like his own. That didn’t feel right. His big hands gently brushed over his wet cheeks. The touch was warm and nice and Remus knew why cuddling Roman was the best. Janus might have had more arms to hug but nobody could give such beautifully toasty hugs like Roman did.

“Hello,” it at once come from Remus’s left side and he turned to see how Logan had sat himself down next to the two.

Remus knitted his brows together in confusion and Logan sighed.

“Yes, I assume that was an awkward start for a conversation, but I couldn’t come up with anything else and it occurred to me that I could not blatantly start talking to you without properly addressing you first.”

Remus squinted at the explanation and sniffed his nose, which was still running. Watching this Logan summoned a handkerchief and held it in Remus’s direction. The little boy didn’t budge and Logan stretched his arm further out, brought the handkerchief to Remus’s nose and waited until he finally blew his nose.

“Very well done, Remus,” Logan added then and let the dirty cloth disappear and gave Remus a rather soft smile in return.

“We were rather loud and quite frantic just a few moments ago. Did this upset you?” Logan questioned kindly and watched how he nodded and stopped himself from sighing any more.

“In that case, is there something we could do to make you feel better?”

A nod.

“Can you show me what you would like?”

Remus frowned adorably hard and started chewing again at the rabbit’s ears. Then he touched the skin between his nose and his upper lip and drew a line over it. Logan had no idea what it meant.

“You want your moustache back?” Virgil said from behind Logan and the teacher turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Got it emo! Get your make up and we’ll draw a terrible little moustache on Your Grace’s face, huh?” Roman chimed in and put a hand on Remus’s shoulder who started to excitedly bounce on the spot.

Virgil exchanged a confused look with Logan, then shrugged and snapped his vanity case into the room. The three men, position themselves around Remus, Logan ending up as Remus’s seat, Roman to Virgil’s right in front of Remus so he could hand Virgil the make-up utensils as he worked and Virgil close up to the fidgety boy drawing a moustache with eyeliner on his tiny child face.

And thus began a quite curious evening for all sides, which would only get weirder as time would tell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! First at you my dearest Crow: I said there would be Janus and there will be but I'm still setting it up! Sorry^^ Please be a little patient and you'll get more of our wonderful snake.
> 
> To all others: Thank you for reading and all the kudos, bookmarks and comments you might leave❤️ They mean a lot to me!
> 
> Now, please procced with taking care and having a wonderful day❤️❤️❤️


	2. UNO

“I see your point I just don’t think we could motivate any of the boys to come here and just sit together. Logan is angry at me for skipping him and at you for making the button. Virgil is angry with me siding with you and I don’t think I need to point out what Roman would have against sitting together with us,” Patton said and massaged his temple.

Janus leaned back in the chair and pressed his lips together. He had hoped for Patton to be far more eager to get his beloved famILY together. But apparently him turning into a giant frog had caused him to become more reasonable. Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing but right now Janus would have preferred an optimistic Patton to a reasonable one.

“Well, and we’d also have trouble with Remus...”

Janus raised his eyebrows, as he watched Patton casting his eyes down to the kitchen table in quiet guilt. That was not something he expected Patton to bring up, but then again, what was he if not an opportunist.

“Indeed. We’re going to have a lot of problems with Remus. But we need to have them, so we can get over them. Otherwise he will not be accepted by Thomas and we both know we need him to be accepted.”

Patton looked up. He clenched his jaw and Janus crossed his arms in front of his chest, as he pushed his chin forward. He would not back out of this conversation. Not in a million years.

* * *

“So, you just knock once on the floor instead of saying “UNO”, alright?” Roman proposed while knocking with his fist on the floor, as an example what Remus was supposed to do.

The little Duke, now with the quite elaborate make-up moustache, grinned widely and demonstrated his agreement with hammering his fist on the floor a few times. Virgil grinned at the little boy's energy and enthusiasm and then asked if he should distribute the cards.

Then they started to play. It had been Remus who conjured the set after he had been satisfied with staring at his reflection and the three others were quick to oblige. And so, they had ended up sitting in a little circle around a stack of UNO cards on the floor of Logan’s living room.

They didn’t know but the imagery the group provided was more than a little strange. The three grown men all looked like they all came out of different shows. A prince out of a fairy tale, the stern but fair teacher from the protagonists of a kids show and an emo background character out of a Tim Burton movie. And all three looked utterly displaced sitting as they were in a little circle with this little boy in midst of them.

But they did not truly care. Not when they miraculously managed to keep going and going and whenever one of them had an UNO the others’ managed to keep them from layin down his last card. Also, somehow whenever things got a little quieter the one player who was next pulled a +4 and as funny it was to hear all three adults censor their swears (Remus was Remus but also five years old. They had to be responsible around him.) it also was a bit strange.

After a further fifteen minutes of them playing without ever reaching a conclusion, Logan paused before he played his next card, a green reverse which would keep Roman from playing and give Remus the next move, and looked to the little Duke next to him.

“Remus, am I right in the assumption that you are monitoring which cards we have and manipulating the middle stack?”

The little boy pressed his cards against his chest and pouted with big puppy eyes. Logan sighed but the tiny hint of a smile reached his lips and he told the boy: “I know you’re not changing the cards we hold in our hands. I’ve kept an eye on it. It’s only the middle stack and taking that in account I have to say -” The hint of a smile turned into an actual smile - “that is quite impressive. You’re being very clever with this.”

A tiny giggle escaped the little rat kid’s lips. It was not loud but genuine and fresh. Filling the air and their chests like only few melodies ever could. It was surprisingly soft and so, so vulnerable. Vulnerable like a feather.

* * *

Patton was shaking like a feather in the wind. The hard and stern expression in his face could have fooled one, but Janus saw the fear and the fragile state of the other. He didn’t want to put him through it.

“I understand that he is loud and wild. I get that it scares you,” Janus said and put Patton through it anyway, “but he will let us face what we need to face. The anger, the sadness, all the things that weigh you down. He can access them so much easier and it will only help you to face them. He’s necessary for us to get better.”

“But what is about the effort the others already put into my wellbeing? Does it not count? How is it not enough? Roman sacrificed his own needs for me feeling better! How is that not enough for me?” Patton retorted defensively and desperately.

Janus eyes became sad and he reached over the table to take Patton’s clenched hands in his own. He saw his pain. He knew it. He had seen it so many times in his friend.

“I am so _not_ sorry Patton. I wish that the things the others did for you would have made you better, made it easier for you to be but self-sacrifice, as noble as it might seem, is not helpful. What Roman did was not helpful. He was just as desperate as you and wanted to help but what he brought to the table was not helpful. Because it was not what he really believed, what he really wanted. He was just trying to please you and that wasn’t helpful for either of you. He needs to be able to talk back to you, having another opinion than you and knowing that he might get out of a discussion as the winner, because right now, he can never win.”

Patton’s bottom lip shivered but his hands were unclenched. He let Janus hold him.

“Roman can do much good if we let him. And you can too. So, so much good. I know that is all you want but I’ve seen you destroy yourself by taking over the wheel with no idea of what you were doing. You’ve been hurting so long and I know you began to acknowledge parts of that but that won’t be enough. We’re going to have to dig deeper than that. And I know you can do it. Just not on your own.”

* * *

Finally, Remus played his last card and Logan proposed for all of them to take a short break. Remus was fine with it, when Logan gave him some paper and a pen and sat next to him, while he scribbled some doodles on the paper. Meanwhile Virgil pulled Roman aside.

“Hey, man, uhm, you seem… tense?” Virgil started quietly while eyeing what Logan and Remus were doing in the corner of his eyes.

Roman forced a smile and fumbled with his hands as he then told doubtful Virgil: “I’m fine! Just worried. About Remus. What else would I be worried about, I mean? Right?”

The fake laugh Roman put on after that didn’t help convince Virgil in any way of Roman’s words. And Roman could see that all too well and stopped. Uneasily he cast his eyes down to his feet and felt his shoulders slump. He didn’t feel princely, at all.

“It’s fine. You took a big hit after the whole thing with Deceit. You’re allowed to be upset about it. Especially, now when your brother fucking regressed as well. This is like the worst nightmare I can imagine, myself being in,” Virgil claimed despite at least five worse things coming to mind but choosing to ignore them since they didn’t seem to be helpful additions in order to get Roman into a better mood.

“It’s not so bad. There are worse things than being regressed.”

Virgil stared at Roman with big eyes and Roman immediately noticed his mistake. Franticly, feeling sweat building on the back of his neck he held his hands up in front of his chest and he faked a laugh.

“I mean,” Roman tried to deflect the suspicion, “there are worse things than Remus being regressed! Remus being regressed! Yeah. That’s what I meant.”

In Virgil’s head rang a million alarm bells. Roman had been regressed before. His poor attempt to hide it made that clear enough, but looking at Roman’s face, at the worry in it he knew he couldn’t ask it. Not without compromising Roman into a crying mess at least.

So, he took the other bait and asked: “Then Remus has been regressed before? Like how often?”

Roman’s breath was still racing and Virgil almost felt that he was going to cry but at once Roman just gulped, drove his hand through his hair and got a grip on his breathing again. He smiled shakily but it seemed to be enough for him to keep himself together and he began to explain.

“It’s usually, when he gets super overwhelmed by stuff that happens to Thomas. Or to us for that matter.”

“What?”

Roman and Virgil turned both their head to Logan who had stood up and now was walking towards the two of them.

“Why would regression help him to deal with feeling overwhelmed?” Logan asked again, as Roman didn’t continue talking.

With a curt shaking of his head Roman bounced back and he answered: “It doesn’t help. It’s a reaction. He has no way of changing the situation, he cannot do anything to stop us all from hurting and stuff and so his physical state just aligns with his emotional state. He just becomes as small and helpless as he feels.”

* * *

“Thank you. I feel a little less directionless now,” Patton told Janus and squeezed his hands.

The snake smiled at him, fondness visibly glittering in his eyes. He let his hand slip over Patton’s and stroked it a few times, getting a little shaky but authentic smile out of the moral side.

“ _Do_ mention it. I’m just doing what I can to keep us all from crashing.”

Patton gave him a short glance, which told Janus that he was thinking that Janus did much more than that but neither lingered on that notion. Instead, Patton sighed a little and straightened his back.

He pulled on hand back to his chest, fumbled with the knot of his cardigan and said while looking down to the table: “I just can’t but still feel uneasy about the twins. It’s as if I could sense their unease, you know?”

“You what?” Janus asked suddenly vigilant.

It was then both heard the sound of a door opening in the hallway.

* * *

Nerd had heard Bro and Gily talking. He had gone to them and talk.

Nobody was looking over his drawings anymore. Remus did not like that feeling at all. He knew, he should have been used to it, but it still bothered him. He didn’t want to cry though. Bro was upset and Nerd and Gily could not handle him being upset. So he would not cry and do something himself.

Nerd’s room was not much fun, when he looked around. Just papers and necessities. Many books Remus didn’t want to read.

But then there was the door. The doorknob was very shiny and Remus knew he could reach it with no problem. And so, the little Duke stood up and walked over to the door, mindful of his step, so the others wouldn’t see him.

The shiny doorknob was smooth and Remus liked the feel as he turned it and opened the door. Quick he stood outside and looked down corridor. It was funny how much bigger everything looked to him now.

* * *

Roman barely heard Logan’s last words as they all three suddenly noticed the little creak the door made as it was opened. In panic all three turned to see Remus walking outside and Roman started sprinting to get to his brother.

He hit his knee at the door, the pain pulsed, but he had no time thinking about it. Remus wasn’t looking at him. He looked to the doorframe leading into the living room, to the shadow that was cast through it.

Roman felt his heart beat up into his throat. The shadow had a hat. He knew the steps. He placed himself beside Remus, despite shivering like a leaf, holding out his arm as if to protect him.

And there it came; Janus stepped out of the doorway. Looked at him and his little brother, who was close to tears. Roman opened his mouth, wanted to defend Remus, not seeing the obvious concern and not anger shining in Janus’s face. But no sound wanted to come to him. He was helpless.

Another shadow. Another pair of steps, next to Virgil and Logan who had come out after Roman.

Patton stood behind Janus.

And at that Roman shrunk. His prince outfit morph into a simple white shirt with a golden sun on it and the red sash turning into a red cape. The black slacks and black boots gone for red shorts and bare feet. On his head a golden cardboard crown held on his head with an elastic string around his chin.

Whimpers shook the now so little Prince and he tried to muffle, suffocate them behind his tiny hands, but he couldn’t stop it. He couldn’t do anything.

Remus jumped in front of him. A little, silver sword appeared in his right hand and with his left he shielded him from the other’s sight.

Roman fell onto his backside from crying and his brother’s little hand was suddenly put on his shoulder. And then they fell through the floor into a different place. Away from the others.

* * *

The four grown-ups stared at the place where Roman and Remus had just stood a mere moment ago.

“Where did they go?! Janus! Where did they go!” Virgil cried aggressively and targeted Janus, who’s eyes still were frozen on the spot.

“Remus probably took them to the Imagination. It’s where he feels most in control,” Janus answered in reflex.

Panicked Logan shot forwards, hands on his head and muttered: “The Imagination is a death trap! They are five years old and we cannot function without Creativity. We cannot lose them! We cannot lose them.”

“Hold. Hold on. We can fix this. It is fine,” Janus intervened finally breaking free from his spot.

“Fix this? This is your fault and-”

“Virgil, please!” Patton stopped Virgil.

All three looked at Patton. He rubbed his eyes. Tears were streaming down but beyond them was a shaky sign of determination in his gaze.

“Janus is self-preservation. If somebody knows how to start saving ourselves it will be him.”

Patton reached out and held onto Janus’s arm.

“I’ll trust you. Lead the way.”

Virgil and Logan gaped at the two and then exchanged a look. Logan gulped and took a step towards them. Gave Janus a simple nod and hesitantly put is and on Patton’s back.

Virgil stared at Janus. And Janus stared back. For once Virgil didn’t slouch. He met Janus evenly in his gaze, taking a deep breath and took a step towards Logan.

“Well then,” Janus said looked to the others, “let’s not waste anymore time and get our Creativities back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 😏😬
> 
> This is fun for me to write! I hope you had fun with it as well and please take care and have a wonderful day❤️


	3. Hide And Seek

With a plump thump the four grown-ups landed on sandy ground. Logan stumbled away from Patton and Virgil turned around in light panic, recognizing the dark lights of Remus’s part of the Imagination. Viciously he turned towards the snake and was about to hiss at him again as Janus shook his head and Virgil noticed how his breath had sped up.

“We need to stay on task,” Janus commented nervously looking around and shortly glancing to Logan who had caught himself from the fall. “After that you can go right back to hating me, but let’s first find the boys. I’m positive Remus did not mean any harm but this could worsen Roman’s state considerably and we _don’t_ need to get him out of here immediately.”

With that Janus squeezed Patton’s hand and turned around a few times before he had settled on a direction and waved for the others to follow him. It became clear that he had done this before. That he had apparently known where they had to go or that he had made the bold decision to lead them deeper into the dark, scary looking forest in Remus’s part Imagination without knowing that the little boys would be there.

* * *

Roman had pressed himself against Remus. He was crying and it was dark and he was small and everything was bad. He was supposed to help everybody. He was supposed to save his brother not the other way round. Because he was the hero and he saved everybody.

Louder whimpers got out of the little boy’s mouth and Remus shooshed and hugged him tightly. He softly bounced back and forth a bit, like Jaybird sometimes did when he held him. Remus did not know why exactly but it always seemed to help so he tried to do the same for Roman.

Remus didn’t feel like he was helping enough though. Roman needed something better. Something better than he could give. Sadly, Remus pulled his brother closer to himself and squeezed him slightly.

Remus didn’t know how much time went by, time was very hard to understand even when he was grown up and it didn’t help that he was only five now, but after some time, he believed it was pretty long he heard something coming closer. Alarmed he pulled away from Roman and looked into the direction where he had believed the noise coming from.

Instinctively, he recognized the steps and exchanged a look with Roman, who sniffed fighting for a slightly braver look and understood. Remus stood up, summoned his tiny sword and stood in front of Roman, who made himself as small as possible and hid behind a red, little shield he had summoned.

With no hesitation and more stubbornness than any five-year-old should be allowed to have, Remus glared at the bushes where he thought Jaybird, Nerd, Gily and Frogger would soon come through. The leaves started rustling and he felt Roman shiver behind him in fear and felt a big cold rage grow in his far too tiny chest.

It was Jaybird’s head that came through the bushes first and Remus felt his eyes begin glowing in a viscous green. As he got a look on the others breaking through the underbrushes, slowly and non-threatening which was lost on the little Duke, he began to growl and a wind came up and vines around bushes and trees started to grow thorns and tried to reach the other sides that tried to come closer.

He watched Jaybird stretching his arms out, effectively stopping the others from moving any further and met his eyes submissively.

* * *

Janus needed to be delicate and considerate here. Remus was obviously extremely upset and enraged, which was even more dangerous in the Imagination because he could and would influence every part of the environment by just experiencing his emotions. But to get him to talk about his issues he would first have to confront Roman.

The little boy, barely hidden behind his brother and this little red shield. He was huddled against a tree, uncertain because of the noises around him and the seeming danger Remus was protecting him from. Yes, if Janus wanted to get to Remus, he first had to convince him that he was not going to hurt Roman. That he never had wanted to hurt Roman in the first place.

And so, Janus let his additional arms appear. Slowly, very slowly so Remus could interfere if he wanted to, he pulled one glove off after the other, letting them fall onto the cold forest floor. Remus aggressive posture faltered a bit, recognizing the meaning behind what Janus was doing there. And then Janus took a deep breath, steeling himself for what he would attempt to do next.

“Remus, I know all of this is a lot and you just want to protect Roman right now. This is why I’m going to be honest with you. No hidden hands, no gloves, no aces up my sleeves. No masks. Do you see that?”

Janus stopped himself from gulping, scared that it would give Remus the wrong impression. He almost believed that it hadn’t had any effect until the little boy after a long pause slowly lowered his sword and glared right at him. But the wind had stopped and the vines were no longer coming after them.

Janus blew some air out of his lips and said: “Thank you, Remus. Can I come a little closer? I want to talk with you eye to eye.”

Remus squinted his eyes but eventually gave a nod. Slowly Janus stepped closer, one foot after the other, until Remus held his hand up when Janus was about four feet away from him and stopped there. Slowly, he let himself kneel down on the ground eerily aware how closely Remus kept an eye on him.

“I want to help you and Roman,” Janus started with a tone so soft, which the other sides except for Virgil and Remus had never heard him use before. “These past few days, have been very stressful and taxing on all off us and you were suffering from that. Our pain got stuck on you and that is not fair and I am sorry I did not come and check on you. I’m sorry that I was not as present as you needed me to be. I am here now and I want to help you.”

As Janus spoke, he heard Patton ever so quietly take a few steps into the twins’ direction. It was not much and Remus did not seem to be bothered by it, but Roman did definitely react. The little Prince tried to sneak away behind his shield and Janus found himself in need to react.

Quick he jumped forth knowing fully well that Remus would try and interfere and just caught him in the right moment with his two right upper arms to stop him from possibly stabbing or biting him. Just in time Janus then managed to grab little Roman at his wrist before he could get a running start and disappear in the bushes.

Remus started screaming loudly and Roman tried to break free but neither was influencing the surroundings to help them escape, nor were they strong enough to get away from Janus’s grip.

Through Remus’s wild screeching Janus’s ears were ringing and he told the boy disgruntled: “I do not like this either but I am not going to let you bite me again, Mister! And as long as I believe that you are going to just do that, I will not let you go.”

Remus simply carried on with his screaming and Janus decided to turn to panicked, little Roman.

Uncertain he gulped and said to him: “I’m sorry all of it is so loud. I don’t like it either and I want to let you go. I don’t want to touch you any more than you are comfortable with but right now I am scared that you will run away and that something might happen to you if you go alone into this forest.”

At that the little boy stopped to pull away so hard and threw a wary look over his shoulder. This was his chance Janus realized.

“I will let go of you if you can promise me to not run away. I will, I swear on Thomas’s life I will,” he announced and held his last free right hand over his heart.

Roman stopped to pull entirely and Janus let him go instantly. A moment later Remus stopped screaming and Janus let go of him too.

And there was silence, between the scary branches rustling in the wind and little critters rushing through the underbrushes.

“’m sorry…”

Janus frowned desperately at the little prince and shook his head.

“Oh, sweetie no, you needn’t be,” Janus said so softly and watched the doubt and confusion in the little face of the Prince. “I mean, yes, the laughing was not nice or good but I should never have retorted the way I did. Not when I was in a position of power, Roman. I should never have let this comparison run out of my mouth. It was not right of me to do that.”

“But you are right!” the little boy said tears streaming anew over his cheeks. “I’m bad! I’m not a hero! I couldn’t help Remus today! I couldn’t do the right thing for the call back and I am not strong, because I’m crying now and I’m sad, and Princes are never sad!”

“Yes, they are kiddo.”

Roman looked over Janus’s shoulder to Patton. The Dad had stopped moving, his arms pressed over his chest and tears running down his face.

With his head hanging low Patton added: “Just like Dads are sometimes sad. It’s really normal and I – I’m sorry I made you think you weren’t allowed to be sad and ask for help.”

“Right,” Janus said solemnly and got Roman’s attention right back. “Patton wasn’t good to you either, despite not meaning to be mean to you. Even so, you are more than allowed to be angry at us. You really, really are. It’s okay. We will work on it and not repeat our mistakes again, but even so you do not need to trust us again right away. Maybe you can never trust me and that is also okay. What I did is not something you could and should easily forgive.”

Roman rubbed his nose and Janus felt how Remus leaned onto his other side and let him close so the little stinky Duke could cling to him.

“But let me promise you that I’ll always try to look out for you. You are our hero. I meant to confirm that Thomas still thought of you as such and I’m sorry I didn’t make that clear enough. Even now, you were so, so brave. You’ve helped Remus despite all the pain you were in. You tried to protect him from me, I saw that, and just before you apologized for something you are so ashamed of. What you did today, was very brave and heroic. And you have done so much more in the past. All our roles we were able to play, all the videos, our Coming Out, that was so much of you. We would be nowhere without you and you are very, very important to us not only because of that but because we love you.”

Janus watched tears from again in the little eyes and felt his side getting wet as well. Softly he drew circles over Remus’s tiny back and sighed at the little Prince.

“Would you like for someone of us to hug you?” Janus asked softly and meanwhile pulled Remus onto his lap as he always did, when the Duke had been regressed and came for his help.

Roman nodded quick and Janus made a motion for him to feel free and just go to who he wanted to hug. And that the little Prince did. On his tiny legs he stormed past Janus and Patton to the back right towards Logan. The teacher saw him coming but barely reacted until Roman’s grabby hands pulled at the upper parts of his pants and shot him the neediest look he ever saw Roman throw him.

“Up please,” Roman begged.

Mechanically Logan reached down and Roman draped his arms around his neck and his little legs around his waist. Logan’s arms reflexively slid into their places under Roman’s tiny backside and over his back and he felt the little boy cling to him as if his life depended on it.

Logan had no idea why but somehow, he almost felt like all their lives depended on him holding Roman correctly right now and pressed him closer to his chest, muttering nonsensical noises in the little one’s ears while Virgil stared at him in utter confusion. Patton smiled at the two and then looked to Janus, who nodded and got up, while carrying Remus.

“Shall we bring this back into the living room?” Janus asked and he got a short nod from Remus in the crook of his neck and the other grown-ups nodding conformingly.

And with that the sunk back into the living room in the Mindscape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 😁
> 
> Yay! Next chapter! I hope you enjoyed it and please feel free to leave a comment if you've got the time! They mean the world to me😊
> 
> Anyway, take care and have a wonderful day❤️💚


	4. I Spy With My Little Eye

Out of immediate danger Virgil felt himself relax. He followed Logan to the couch, where the teacher had sat down, carefully readjusting the little boy in his lap. After the initial shock Virgil had to admit that Logan holding the little Prince so warily was absolutely adorable. As if the boy would break if he touched him in the wrong way.

Patton took a seat to on the side lean of the couch and watched Janus setting Remus down on the dining table and pulling forth a chair to sit down in front of the little boy. Slightly afraid Patton saw Remus’s scared look not quite knowing what Janus had planned. He then threw a look to Logan and Virgil, latter now also cooing over the Roman and smiled sadly. It would be such a cute scene wouldn’t he know that Roman only was like this because he felt so overwhelmed by Patton’s mere presence that it turned him into a five-year-old.

“Okay, Remus,” Janus said softly at the table and saw Remus’s complete attention turning to him, “I know you do not want to talk but I want to know what stresses you so much. Do you have an idea how you could explain to me what’s bothering you without talking?”

The little boy’s forehead wrinkled in deep thought and Janus patiently waited for him to come up with an idea. He knew after all how much Remus liked it to figure out a solution himself and giving him the chance to help him fix his own problems, to give him control seemed to be the only right approach.

And at once the little face of the Duke lit up and a piece of paper and a set of colouring pencils appeared. Janus raised his eyebrows and nodded impressed, which made Remus smile.

“You want to draw me what bothers you? That is very clever. Please begin as soon as you feel ready,” Janus told him softly.

Remus changed from sitting into a kneeling position and positioned the paper in front of himself before he opened the pencil case and picked out the light brown pencil after some deliberation. He drew a circle and beyond a rectangle to which he added a set of stick figure legs. Then he took the black pencil and added a hat to the circle and drew a black capelet on the top part of the rectangle. At that he stopped for a moment and looked up to Janus. Expectantly, he pointed at the figure and waited for Janus to react.

“That is me, I assume?” Janus offered to what Remus gave a short nod and continued.

This time he took a purple pencil and drew left to stick figure Janus another circle, under it a hoodie to which he also added stick figure legs. Then he added a batch of hair on the circle, which was cast over one side of the face. Again he looked up to Janus.

“This is Virgil,” Janus answered again feeling that the little boy had quite a vision in his mind.

Then Remus took the sky-blue pencil. To the right of stick figure Janus, he drew a circle and a t-shirt, added messy hair to the circle and took a grey pencil to add a pair of glasses, a cardigan and stick figure legs.

“Patton,” Janus said now feeling a little concerned as Remus didn’t even looked up to him anymore.

Remus took the yellow again and drew Janus’s arms, then purple to draw the hands of Virgil, the left one joined with Janus’s right’s. Then he took the sky blue one and did the same thing on the other side.

Next, he put the pencils aside and took a green one. Far to the right of the little handholding troupe he drew a littler circle and a big t-shirt with black pencil beneath it. He drew a little alien head on it and added small legs and arms and a green cape. And then he drew a black crown on the little person’s head and once again looked up to Janus.

“That is you,” Janus said fondly and Remus nodded.

Slowly Remus then turned back to the paper and took a begrudgery pencil. Hesitantly, he held the pencil over stick figure Janus’s face. It hovered there for quite a moment before he let himself put the pencil on the paper and drew a smiling face. Then he got to Virgil. And also drew a smiling face.

Then to Patton.

Drew also a smiling face.

Then to his own figure.

There he made a big upside down “u” for the mouth and two smaller ones above it for closed eyes and took a blue pencil.

He added three tears under his right eye.

And one. Two. Three tears under his left eye.

For four seconds he stared at the picture. Took a black pencil. Drew a big fat line in the blank space between him and the group.

And another one.

And another one.

And then he put the pencil down and looked up to Janus. His face was blank and he put his hand over his mouth, looking at the picture in contemplation. After so much time, it had to be an eternity in the little boy’s mind, Janus lowered his hand and looked from the picture to Remus.

“It is a very interesting picture, Remus. Would you mind if Patton would look at it too? I think he could help me explain better what I think about it,” Janus asked him

For a short moment shock appeared in Remus’s eyes before he looked over to Patton, who looked just as surprised at him. The moment Patton noticed him staring though, he tried to put on a brave face and told him: “You can say no! I understand.”

Remus just watched Patten after that for a minute. Turned his little face back to Janus, without taking his eyes away from Patton and nodded.

With a gulp Patton stood up and walked over to Janus. He was not quite sure what to expect. He knew Janus, Virgil, Remus and Patton himself would be there but he didn’t know in what state Remus had drawn them in. He didn’t know why Janus would want his help with Remus and what he could do to help him explaining as he reached the table and unconsciously put his hand on Janus’s shoulder, as he leaned forward to see the picture.

Patton’s eyes went wide and his eyes flew sadly over the page. The little boy, little Remus. Alone and sad! Left while all others were happy! No! That could not be right! Tears rushed in Patton’s eyes and he lifted his gaze from the paper to Remus and then to Janus. Latter had a bitter, sad look in his eyes and Patton began to understand.

“As you see,” Janus started and pointed at the little group of himself, Patton and Virgil, “Remus thinks I will now only hang out with you and Virgil. And we will be very happy together.”

Patton nodded and waited for Janus to follow up.

“But do you think that you have everything on this picture so you could be very happy?”

Patton frowned but then it clicked. He straightened up and looked to Remus, who seemed quite unsure what was going to transpire next. Quickly Patton threw a look over his shoulder to Logan with Roman in his arms and smiled. He turned back and said to little Remus: “I don’t mean to critique you; I’m very happy that Virgil and Janus are my friend but – I couldn’t be happy without Logan and Roman. They belong to our family.”

Our?

Remus blinked.

“You heard right. He said ‘our’,” Janus said gently and put his hand on Remus’s cheek.

“Of course, I said ‘our’!” Patton confirmed tenderly. “And because it is our family, and Janus is part of that family, we cannot to be happy in this picture. Because you stand there alone. And sad. And Janus would never be happy in our family if you were alone and sad. Would you Janus?”

Remus looked to Janus and saw him press his lips together in a rare moment of vulnerability. Remus started to breath faster and louder as Janus opened his mouth and the words fell out of it.

“How could I ever be happy without you my little chaos rat?”

Remus jumped to Janus, draped his little arms around his neck and with his force made his own crown and Janus’s hat fall of their heads and snuggled up to the snake, as he full-heartedly embraced him with his six arms.

Janus would later deny it, but as he felt the nape of his neck getting wet, he himself shed some tears in the messy hair of the stinky Duke and pressed some kisses in the boy’s hair as he cried with joy and disbelief.

“I wasn’t going to leave you. I never could. I already have made some schemes how I could force the others to spend more time with you and make them see how much fun some self-indulged creativity could be,” Janus whispered and Remus pulled away from him.

“Your schemes suck!” he exclaimed with the happiest smile and the puffiest eyes and as much as Janus wanted to feel offended, he could not but cackle at his bastard son’s unapologetic voice being back.

Then Remus tried to wipe his tears away and got a handkerchief handed from Patton. As his hands didn’t quite cooperate with him as he wanted, Janus took it from him and helped him clean up his face again. Again, Remus then leaned into Janus’s arms and let the grown-up rock him forth and back.

For a while they remained like this. Close and warm. Them together. The world uncaring and cruel and still not strong enough to split them apart.

“I thought you’d go away like Gily.”

Janus hummed sadly and cast his look down at the sadness and defeated tone in Remus’s voice.

“I didn’t want you to go too… I want you to be happy but I don’t want to be alone. I don’t want you to hate me, because I don’t know how to not be me. I don’t want to lose you. It hurt so much when we lost Gily. So bad. I don’t want to do that again. I was so sad.”

Janus gulped and closed his eyes. He pressed the kid in his arms closer to himself. Remus’s lack of filter, the honesty resulting from it had always been the part he both hated and admired most about him. And now he would have to be honest too.

“I know. I know you were. You are. I am too. I am still very sad how we parted and it – it still hurts me too, Remus.”

“I know. You’ve made a lot of stupid schemes to get him back. They were very bad and that’s why I stole and ate them. I didn’t want you to make it worse.”

A burst of laughter. Janus almost dropped from the chair, from his fit and Remus held onto him with the most satisfied smile on his face, as he had managed to get a genuine laugh out of his otherwise so guarded friend.

And as the laughter filled the room, Patton watched them with his arms crossed over his chest. They could never be separated. And they both longed to mend the bonds with the others. He would help them with everything in his might.

Logan had listened to the whole exchange in complete stillness, merely noticing how Roman’s warmth changed from time to time as he heard his brother starting to feel better and how he adjusted his grip and position to turn and glimpse over to Remus and Janus.

And Virgil felt incredibly small. When he went away, it was in anger. It was in fight. There had been screaming and then no noise at all. He had been so certain that they hated him. That they didn’t want him anymore.

Now he saw they did. They did. After all, they actually had missed him.

Now he could finally admit, he realized with a wavering smile, that he had missed them too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :D
> 
> I drew the drawing (sadly only in pencil and not with colours😥) Remus made before I wrote the first chapter! I wanted to that for so long and now its here!
> 
> Thank you again so much for this prompt Crow! I get to have so much emotional twin stuff and cute things in this, it's so amazing😊
> 
> Anyway, thank you so much for reading, please take care and have a wonderful day❤️


	5. Drawing Unicorns And Train Wrecks

Remus clung to Janus with a satisfied grin and Janus pressed a kiss on top of his head and rocked him a little back and forth for a little longer until the little boy wiggled himself out of his friend’s grip.

“You want to get down?” Janus asked tenderly and already loosened his grip.

Remus nodded eagerly and then jumped from Janus’s lap. With quick steps Remus ran across the room towards the couch and Roman turned himself around on Logan’s lap, who realized what was coming next. With hold up hands he leaned back, as Remus flung himself against his brother and the two crashed into Logan’s chest in a giggling mess. Careful Logan tried to steady the boys, so neither would fall off him only to be snapped at as he touched Roman’s upper arm.

“He’s my Roman!” Remus exclaimed loudly and pulled Roman towards himself.

Slightly surprised Logan blinked and observed the pouting child for a moment, while Roman snickered uncontrollably. Then Logan’s expression grew uncharacteristically soft and he told Remus: “I’m not taking him away from you, Remus. I wanted to make sure neither of you falls off my lap. Excuse me not warning you.”

Remus pressed his lips together for a moment before he cautiously gave in: “Alright. I’ll accept the apology.”

“Thank you. You are most generous, Your Grace.”

At the title Remus’s eyes lit up and he beamed at Logan with full force. Logan and Virgil had to restrain themselves from cooing over him, when Remus proudly pointed out to Roman that Logan had just used his title, which was a lot cooler than his.

“Not true! Your Royal Highness is a fine title!” Roman argued only for Remus to stick his tongue out.

The boys wrestled for a moment on Logan’s lap, before they started giggling again and fell into each other’s arms. Carefully, Logan made sure they wouldn’t fall of, Virgil inching closer to the three as well and helping Logan keeping those two rascals safe.

Meanwhile Janus and Patton walked across the room and settled next to Logan and Virgil’s sides watching the twins fondly. They hadn’t seen either twin being so relaxed in a shocking amount of time and none of the four grown-ups was going to interrupted them. They understood that they needed this and they were willing to do whatever it took to prolong their time to lie back and relax a little more.

“We should play something else!” it came at once from Remus.

Roman excitedly nodded and said: “Were you thinking of dress up?”

Logan, Virgil and Janus grimaced at the idea in horror. They would do anything but rather not dress up at the twins’ whims.

“No, that’s no fun! They are not good actors! I want to play with them too!”

“Hey!” Janus exclaimed offendedly, which made Virgil snicker and Remus beam even more.

He had made Gily laugh! The first great success! Yay!

Excitedly, Remus jumped from Logan’s lap on Virgil and hugged him tightly. A little surprised Virgil patted Remus’s back and ruffled through his hair when the little boy stood on his legs looked over to his brother with a triumphant smile. Roman rolled his eyes but the smile in his face betrayed him and made it quite clear that he was happy for his brother. And as the brothers looked at each other the had an epiphany.

“Drawing unicorns and train wrecks!”

Within seconds the boys had jumped off Logan and Virgil and skidded over the floor towards the dining table where Remus had left his crayons. Filled with energy they took the papers and crayons and ran back to the couch looking at the four grown-ups expectantly.

Uncertain Patton looked from the others, who were just as clueless as he was, to the twins and asked: “I’m sorry but what is ‘Drawing unicorns and train wrecks’ exactly?”

Eagerly Roman clapped his hands and said: “It’s a game! You tell a story about a unicorn and a train wreck and we draw it!”

“Yeah!” Remus chimed in jumping up and down. “We used to do it together and I drew Roman’s stories and he mine but now you all can tell stories and we can draw them and then decide which’s is the best! It is going to be awesome!”

“I’m not sure if I follow?” Virgil stammered.

“But it’s super easy!” Roman claimed with a pout.

“You just have to tell a story with a unicorn in it,” Remus explained eagerly, “and a train crash has to happen so there’s a train wreck, of course!”

“And no blood. There isn’t supposed to be any blood,” Roman added somewhat shyly.

“But it’s okay when someone dies-”

“Just not the unicorn!”

“Yeah, not the unicorn but and no blood but a little dying is okay.”

“Yeah, a little dying is fine! It’s a train crash, after all.”

After that explanation the twins looked at each other and nodded in deep understanding and agreement. The four other sides did not know what to think of that. Or better said, three sides didn’t know what to think. Logan knew very well what he was thinking about this game.

“I do not think that I will be good at this game. Improvisation games are not my area of expertise,” Logan said and got both boys to look at him.

Remus scrunched his nose and was about to tell Logan to just try at least, when Roman piped up and said to Remus: “He’s right. And also, Lo is a very sore loser so it won’t be fun if he’s losing.”

“I beg your par-” Logan tried to intervene but got cut off by Remus ignoring him and instead addressing Roman.

“So, we need to give him a different task... What about referee!”

“Oh yes!” Roman agreed excitedly. “Lo ‘s a great referee! He can help us decide which story is the best!”

The twins smiled happily with their decision and looked in unison over to Logan. The logical side was a little overwhelmed with the kids’ energy but found himself slowly nodding and not a moment later being pulled up on his feet by the two boys. Casually they pulled him along and told him to sit down between them, which he did without resistance. The twins then prepared their colouring pencils and distributed blank pages among each other, as the grown-ups watched them puzzledly.

“Now,” Roman cleared his throat and addressed his fellow sides, “let’s start the preparations, shall we? Remus, Logan and I shall discuss the criteria of what makes a good story and you get time to think about what kind of story you’ll present us. Is that clear? Are there questions?”

Virgil, Patton and Janus looked at each other unsure what to say. But then again, the twins had been pretty straight forward with the explanations. There were no questions left and they couldn’t possibly do anything against Roman’s big pleading eyes or Remus’s pouty lip.

And so, Virgil said with a slight sigh: “Nah, I think we’ve got it, Your Royal Highness.”

For a moment Roman faltered a little. Virgil wasn’t mocking him. He had genuinely used his title. He pressed his lips together and smiled. Smiled widely and tried the tears not to roll over his cheeks. In a flash he had turned around completely and sat down in front of Logan, while Remus was climbing on the teachers lap and the three began to discuss what was the most important about a ‘Unicorn and Train Wreck’ story.

The wet sparkle in Roman’s eyes didn’t go unnoticed by Virgil. But he kept himself from saying anything but could not focus on figuring out a good story, as his eyes still were stuck on the small prince. On Roman. His friend. His friend who had come to him with so much anxiety in his bones and fear clouding his mind, just because he wanted to ask for help. His friend, who had very probably regressed before but had never come to them to ask for help.

His friend, who was now a little and adorable and had turned back around and asked them who wanted to start with telling a story. Virgil panicked a little but to his luck Patton raised his hand and volunteered to start. 

“I hope this is what you imagined,” Patton said with a little smile and then began to tell his story. “Once upon a time there was a kind, little unicorn named Tommy. He had a few very close unicorn friends and they loved to play with each other. For his birthday Tommy had gotten a new train set, because he was a good unicorn, and he and his friends decided to play with it. His friend, uh – unicorn Greg, wanted to play wild west and took a unicorn LEGO figures to play as the bandits of the story. They blocked the rails and the train crashed terribly. A few of the passengers bonked their heads and had scraped knees because they fell from the crash. Needless to say, that they were very scared when the bandits came to rob them! But their luck there was Tommy’s friend, eh – Tammie, who played the brave cowboy who came and saved the passengers from getting robbed and helped them getting safely to the next town. And that is the story how Tommy and his friends played happily together and let their play train crash.”

Patton finished and smiled as Roman clapped happily. Logan just raised his eyebrows and Remus scrunched his nose but began to take a paper and draw what Patton had told them. Roman joined just a moment later and the boys were quiet for a few minutes. When they finished, they put the papers to the side so neither could see the other’s and asked who would continue with the story. Janus sighed and volunteered to go next.

“It was a dark and stormy night near the cost. The train tracks ran along the shore and the passengers saw the water looking like a grand void stretch out up until the horizon. It was still. Too still. The water drew back at the beach and suddenly the train stopped. A baby was crying. And then there was the sound of stomping. Getting louder and louder. Stomping hooves. A father looked out of the window and saw the silhouettes of a stampede of unicorns coming right at them riding a humongous wave coming towards the cost. But when he understood what was going to happen it was already too late. The wave reached the land and broke. Broke and enveloped the train and it’s passengers in its darkness to feed the unicorns’ hunger for tragedy and blood.”

“I will have to take points away from you because you mentioned blood in your story,” Logan said while Roman pressed himself against Logan’s leg.

Remus on the other hand seemed pretty psyched but tried to not show it too much because he saw how much the story had scared Roman. Janus pressed his lips together and crossed his arms in front of his chest. He looked to the side to not show the little tint of shame in his face to have forgotten how sensitive the little prince could be.

“It’s okay. It wasn’t really there. We should draw now,” Roman said and took a new paper to draw Janus’s story.

Again a few minutes of silence followed. Logan was watching both boys closely and Patton came to sit next to him on the floor carefully patted Roman’s back as the boy drew and felt how he slowly lost the tension in his back. And when they finally finished it was Virgil’s turn to go and tell the next story.

Uncertain Virgil looked to both twins and then to Logan, who gave him a shrug and lastly Patton, who showed him a thumbs up. Ready or not, it was his turn now.

“Uh, so there are these maglev trains, right? So, in the big magical metropolis – uh, Lavenia they opened a new maglev train line. And like, the people were very excited because the tracks went above the normal streets and you could see over the city and all. So, the first train ride was fully occupied with mostly rich and powerful people and a few normal people, who had won tickets over a contest. Anyway, the drive began and everything was fine. That was until an evil magician appeared, who was pissed over the train construction committee which had not considered him as magical council for the project, and blasted a giant fireball into the train rails just before a curve. The train was too fast and there was no time for them to stop and the train shot over the rails directly towards a huge skyscraper. The train would certainly crash and kill whoever was in there. But in the last wagon, where the ticket winners were, a young woman had ushered all off them together. She was a witch and determined to safe at least them even if it meant for her to overexert herself and die. Her, uh, will to self-sacrifice was heard by the most magical creature in the city and the mighty unicorn, uhm, Jeff(?) lent the witch his powers for a few moments, which made her powerful enough to evacuate all the people in the train and the skyscraper. She was celebrated as a great heroine and, uh, gifted the unicorn her most favourite hat. Jeff appreciated it a lot.”

The twins’ eyes were glowing. Excitedly, they babbled about the fireball and the most awesome unicorn in history as they grabbed the crayons and drew their last pictures eagerly. A bit baffled Virgil watched and listened to the twins. Who would have thought he could create something they would enjoy?

“So, now,” Logan said gently when the boys had finished, “shall we go to decide which story is the best?”

Roman and Remus nodded and made Logan stand up and walk away from the others with them to decide, who should win. The three remaining sides watched Logan crouching down and nodding along as the two boys quite seriously talked about the stories they had made up on the spot. Somehow, they started to get nervous the longer the three talked and shared nervous glances between each other until Logan gave a final nod to the boys and walked over with them.

Seriously, Logan cleared his throat and announced: “My co-councils and I have talked about your stories and came to a decision to, who will be the winner of the best story. Patton, while you got all the criteria right and had a pleasant narrating style, the story was a bit-”

“Bland!” Remus threw in and Logan nodded reticently.

“Yes. Also, there was no real train wreck to speak of, which bothered Remus a little. Now, Janus; Your story was the one with the most enticing story telling. Good atmosphere and wording. All criteria were met but it got a little dark and as mentioned before the blood should have been left out completely, even though Roman is now fine with it.”

Janus nodded, badly hiding the regret in his eyes. It only eased away a little when Roman smiled at him and he felt that the little boy had forgiven him for it.

“Now Virgil,” Logan continued and Virgil felt himself tensing up, “your story fulfilled all the criteria, and while your narrating style was more casual and you stumbled at some points it was certainly the one my co-councils enjoyed the most.”

“There was magic!”

“And fireballs!”

“Witches and angry mages!”

“And Jeff the unicorn!”

Logan couldn’t keep himself from smiling and told Virgil: “Which means that you are the winner of the contest.”

Before Virgil could react in any way, he saw how a mischievous glint flicker in the boys’ eyes and instinctively leaned back even before Roman and Remus started to run towards him and shouted: “And winners get tickle hugs!”

Virgil had no chance. The twins overwhelmed him completely and he found himself laying on his back laughing uncontrollably with one twin tickling his sides and sitting on his belly and on sitting on his legs and tickling his feet. All the whining and complaining didn’t get him anywhere and it only stopped when he almost tumbled off the couch and Patton as well ac Janus just caught him in the right moment before dropping on the floor. Finally, Virgil got a glimpse of the twin of his belly, and saw Roman yawning. Quickly, Virgil used his chance and sat up, letting Roman flopping down into his lap and tussle his hair a little.

The boy pouted and Virgil asked with a smirk: “Did that power you out, bud?”

“No!” Roman protest and yawned promptly again.

Meanwhile Remus climbed up Virgil’s legs to sit next to Roman and wanted to laugh at Roman only to start yawn himself. Fondly Virgil chuckled and tussled Remus’s hair as well.

“What about watching a movie? Do you think cuddling up on the couch and watching a movie would be fun now?” Virgil asked and got eager nods from both of them.

Logan was about to interrupt and add that they had to rank the pictures still, but Patton kept him from it and Janus got up to set up the TV as Virgil made himself comfortable on the couch, with Remus koala hugging him around the waist. Roman had slipped off him and planted himself on Logan as soon as the sat down next to Virgil. Patton took the place next to Logan after he handed out a few blankets and smiled as he saw Remus slip into Virgil’s hoodie and Virgil burying the two of them in the blanket as well.

“Which movie will it be?” Janus asked and looked to the boys.

Roman and Remus shared a look and Roman said looking up to Virgil: “You’ve won so you get to decide.”

“Uh, okay… Uhm… Atlantis?” Virgil said uncertainly and relaxed when he saw Roman’s smile broaden.

Janus grinned and put the movie on. Gallantly, he walked back and sat down next to Virgil, since Remus made grabby hands for him. Reluctantly Janus slid closer to Virgil and petted Remus’s head for a bit. 

Then Virgil lifted the blanket he had buried them under and shot Janus a look. A come-on-move-closer-look. With a lump in his throat Janus moved closer and took the blanket from Virgil’s hand to tuck himself in with the anxious side and the kid chaos king.

Patton watched them with a tear in the edge of his eyes and then leaned his head against Logan’s as the movie began. Silently, they watched for a good half hour. The story was interesting and it was not one of those they watched too often, which was a nice change of pace.

But when the submarines crashed and Virgil had looked down to the little bundle in his hoodie he quietly announced: “Mine has fallen asleep.”

He looked up over to Logan and saw how the teacher cradled a sleeping Roman in his arms and Patton watching the small boy fondly.

“Who would have thought that they can power themselves out?” Janus commented and Virgil snorted a little.

“They’ve done a lot today, haven’t they?”

Patton’s voice was soft and heavy and the three other sides felt the silent remorse oozing from the dad side. Lightly Logan leaned against him, caught his look and smiled faintly before looking over to Janus and Virgil. They were huddled close together, Remus in their midst and Logan understood that this was needed. Needed in the process of healing. And so, he decided to make a suggestion.

“Let’s finish the movie. You have won to watch it after all Virgil. Then we can let them sleep and talk. Is that an agreeable proposal?”

It was. Patton nodded and leaned his head against Logan’s as Virgil too moved closer to him and Janus followed suit.

It was warm. It was what they needed. And so they kept watching how Milo found Atlantis as the twins slumbered in their laps and old wounds slowly started to heal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, this story is going to be finished. Why? Because I love my Crow and she deserves the ending to their request😌 Why there is still one chapter open? Well, because I wanna do an epilog because I don't know how to write shorter stories. And that's that.
> 
> Happy 2021 y'all. Love you, please take care and have a wonderful day💖


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